Collective package for packaging containers

ABSTRACT

A collective package having a plurality of packages mounted on a support therefor and a shrink plastic film wrapping thereabout, the wrapping being provided with an upper opening to expose the top of at least one of the centrally located packages to permit easy withdrawal thereof from the collective package, and the method of forming the opening.

United States Patent [191 Throberg COLLECTIVE PACKAGE FOR PACKAGING CONTAINERS [75] Inventor: Kaj Stellan Throberg, Malmo,

Sweden [73] Assignee: Sobrefina SA, Fribourg,

Switzerland [22] Filed: Aug. 16, 1971 [2]] App]. No.: 171,913

[52] US. Cl. 206/65 S, 53/30, 206/45.33, 206/DIG. 32, 229/DIG. 12, 206/65 S;65 R;65 B;45.33;44.12;46 BK;56 AC;DIG. 32;57 R

[51] Int. Cl... B65d 65/16, B65d 71/00, B65d 85/62 [58] Field of Search 53/30; 229/DIG. 12 206/65 S, 65 R, 65 B, 45.33, 44.12, 46 BK,

56 AC, DIG. 32, 57 R [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,442,436 5/1969 Kirby, Jr. 206/65 S 3,392,823 7/1968 Green et al. 206/45.33

111 3,750,876 [451 Aug. 7, 1973 3,263,807 8/1966 Fingerhut 206/65 S 2,755,922 7/1956 Volckening... 206/45.33 2,117,194 5/1938 McElroy 206/46 BK 3,273,302 9/1966 Walter 206/45.33 3,495,375 2/1970 Burhop et al 206/65 S Primary Examiner-William T. Dixson, Jr. AttorneyPierce et a1.

[57] ABSTRACT A collective package having a plurality of packages mounted on a support therefor and a shrink plastic film wrapping thereabout, the wrapping being provided with an upper opening to expose the top of at least one of the centrally located packages to permit easy withdrawal thereof from the collective package, and the method of forming the opening.

5 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures COLLECTIVE PACKAGE FOR PACKAGING CONTAINERS The present invention refers to a collective package for packaging containers tightly stacked one against the other on a level, square or rectangular support plate whereby the said containers are maintained in the intented stacking configuration by providing a tightly fitting shrink foil about support plate and the containers.

In packaging technology shrink film is often used in order to maintain a number of objects stacked against one another in its stacking configuration. Frequently these objects are located on a base in the form of a plate in order to give greater stability to the collective package.

Such shrink foil packages have the advantage that the packed goods are displayed in a satisfactory manner and that, in addition, the shrink foil wrapper is cheap.

The disadvantages of shrink foil packages consist in that they do not provide any significant mechanical protection for the packaged object and that the package is difficult to open without scissors or knife, since the shrink foil is very tough and strong and can hardly be torn. Once a shrink foil package of the said type has been opened by shearing or cutting, the shrink foil loses its containing effect and the stacked objects no longer remain in their stacking configuration when the package is handled.

Since the shrink foil does not provide any significant mechanical protection, this wrapping method is as a rule used only for relatively insensitive objects such as fruit which is packaged by means of shrink foil. The difficulty consisting in the fact that shrink foil packages are relatively difficult to open without tools and lose their containing function once they have been cut open has so far been a problem. The present invention describes a collective package in which the above difficulties are avoided. The collective package in accordance with the invention is characterised in that an opening is provided in the upper part of the said plastic shrink foil, which substantially exposes the upper part of all or some of the containers which in the stacking configuration ajoin only other containers of the same type, whereas all the containers which are in contact with the outer lateral edges of the collective package are substantially covered by the shrink foil.

An embodiment of the invention is described below with reference to the attached diagrammatic drawing in which FIG. 1 shows a collective package consisting of a number of bottle-type containers wrapped by means of shrink foil, and

FIG. 2 shows a collective package containing a number of carton or cardboard containers with square or rectangular cross section.

In the case of the collective package in accordance with FIG. 1, a number of bottle-type containers 1 is located on a stiff base 2 which may preferably consist of a square or rectangular cardboard plate, the size and shape of which substantially corresponds to the base area taken up by the stacked objects. The bottle-type objects I are tightly stacked against one another in 3 rows, whereby in the given embodiment there are 5 containers in each row. Once the bottle-type containers 1 have been located on plate 2 in the manner described above, the plate and the stacked objects are wrapped in per se known manner by means of a shrink foil 3, which may consist of a tube into which the plate 2 is introduced or of 2 foils placed at the top and at the bottom of the plate and welded together so as to form a wrapping which may be compared to a tube with 2 Iongitudinal seams.

Once the shrink foil 3 has been placed about the support plate with the bottle-type containers stacked on it, the package is introduced into an oven in which the shrink foil 3 is heated until it shrinks, whereby it is caused to conform tightly both to the plate and to the containers 1 stacked on it, so that they are held against one another and against the plate .2 in the stacked configuration.

After shrinking of the wrapping; film 3 an opening 4 is cut into that part of shrink film 3 which covers the top of the package. This opening 4 can advantageously be brought about by electrically heating a wire or edge strip bent in accordance with the edge line 5 of the re quired opening 4.

In order to enable the said wire or edge strip to be fixed to the given form and to be brought into contact with the shrink film 3 at the top of the package in a safe and convenient manner, it is advisable to mount the said wire or edge strip on an insulating plate which can be raised and lowered so that in an upper position it is so far above the collective package that the latter can be freely transported below the plate, whereas in a lower position it is brought into contact with the collective package. The said wire or edge strip is advantageously made of a metallic resistance material but it may also consist e.g. of stainless steel.

In certain cases, especially when collective packages are stored in a storage space with a dusty atmosphere it may be advisable to cover the hole 4 after it has been made with a tape of such width and] length that it covers the hole 4 entirely. Of course, adhesive coating of the said tape is requied only along those parts which when the tape is fitted over the hole 4 come into contact with the shrink film 3, and the adhesive should be so selected that the tape remains over the opening 4 during normal transportation and handling but can be easily removed when the contents of the collective package are to be made accessible. In order to facilitate the removal of the tape it is advisable not to coat it with adhesive along one outer edge or cap, so that it is conveniently possible to grip the edge of the tape when it is to be removed.

When the containers packed in the collective package are to be taken out of the package, the said tape is first pulled off if such a tape has been applied over the hole 4. When the hole 4 is exposed the 3 central pack aging containers 1, Le. the packaging containers which are surrounded on all sides by packaging containers of the same type can be easily gripped and pulled out through the opening 4. The outer packaging containers remain in their position in spite of the fact that the inner packaging containers have been removed since the shrink film 3 is stretched both over the sides of the said packaging containers and over essential fractions of the upper parts. The said packaging containers in the outer rows can however be easily withdrawn from the package once the packaging containers at the centre have been removed by introducing the hand through the opening 4 and gripping the packaging container which is to be withdrawn, whereupon one pulls the said container forward towards the opening 4 and withdraws the package.

Even after removal of all packaging units at the centre and of a number of packaging units from the outer row, the remaining packaging containers retain their position since the shrink film 3 is elastic and presses the remaining containers against one another and against the base plate 2.

In FIG. 2 is shown a further embodiment of the invention, in which a number of parallelepipedic objects I are stacked against one another in a compact stacking configuration on a supporting plate 2, whereupon the objects stacked in this manner, which may e.g. be disposible milk packages, are wrapped with a shrink foil 3 by means of which they are maintained in the stacking configuration.

Also in the case of this collective package an opening 4 is provided in the shrink foil in order to enable the packaging unit 1 to be removed from the collective package.

If the packaging units in the case illustrated in FIG. 2 cause the collective package to have a relatively smooth uninterrupted upper surface, it may be difficult to remove the first packaging unit, and one of the packaging units not covered with shrink foil is therefore provided with a grip 6 which in the illustrated embodiment consists of a strip placed around the packaging unit 1. It is of course feasible to apply grip to one or several of the packaging units by gluing or heat sealing, but the simplest solution probably consists in providing a strip 6 of strong paper or plastic material about the packaging unit in such a way that the ends of the strip are accessible in the opening 4 at the top of the collective package.

It has proved that collective packages in accordance with the invention are particularly suitable for selling packed goods in stores or retail shops with rapid turnover, where the goods are packed in eg tins, bottles or cartons and are subsequently combined in to collective packages and may be displayed in their collective packages when placed one above the other in stacks. In the case of conventional shrink film packages it has proved difficult for the customers to take out the required packaging unit from the collective packages wrapped in shrink film unless these were first cut open with a tool, and therefore much working time must be expanded to make certain that open shrink film packages are accessible. With a package in accordance with the invention the consumers can withdraw without difficulty the required number of packaging units from the collective package since all package units are accessible through the opening 4, and the shrink film wrapper 3 need not be removed from the collective packing until the latter is completely emptied of packaging containers and the remaining shrink film and the support plate 2 are thrown away.

With the collective packing here illustrated, the packaging units are placed on the base only in a single layer, which is most functional, but it is, of course, also possible to arrange several layers of packaging units on the support plate before applying the plastic shrink foil.

I claim:

1. A collective package for a plurality of substantially identical packages compactly assembled on at least one plane so that there is at least one central package surrounded by others of the compactly assembled packages comprising a support plate for supporting the plurality of compactly assembled packages, a shrink film of plastic material surrounding the packages assembled on said support, said plastic shrink film being provided with an opening in the upper surface thereof so as to expose the entire top of the at least one central pack age, said shrink film substantially covering at least all of the peripheral packages of the compact assembly thereof whereby said at least one central package may be easily removed by withdrawing said at least one package through the opening in the upper surface of said shrink film.

2. A collective package as claimed in claim 1 wherein said support plate is rectangular and the packages assembled thereon form a substantially rectangular collective package and the opening in said shrink film is rectangular.

3. A collective package as claimed in claim 1 and further comprising gripping means provided on at least one of the exposed, centrally located packages to assist in the removal thereof from the collective package.

4. A collective package as claimed in claim 3 wherein said gripping means comprises a member extending around two opposed sides and the bottom of at least one of the centrally located packages, the upper ends of said member being accessible through said opening for withdrawing said package from the collective package.

5. A method of making a collective package comprising assembling a pluraity of substantially identical packages on a support in compact configuration so that there is at least one central package surrounded by others of the substantially identical packages, surrounding said assembled pluraity of packages and support with a film of plastic material, shrinking said film to secure said packages together and removing that portion of the upper surface of the shrunk film to completely expose the at least one central package while retaining the shrunk film substantially over all of the peripheral packages of the compact assembly thereof.

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1. A collective package for a plurality of substantially identical packages compactly assembled on at least one plane so that there is at least one central package surrounded by others of the compactly assembled packages comprising a support plate for supporting the plurality of compactly assembled packages, a shrink film of plastic material surrounding the packages assembled on said support, said plastic shrink film being provided with an opening in the upper surface thereof so as to expose the entire top of the at least one central package, said shrink film substantially covering at least all of the peripheral packages of the compact assembly thereof whereby said at least one central package may be easily removed by withdrawing said at least one package through the opening in the upper surface of said shrink film.
 2. A collective package as claimed in claim 1 wherein said support plate is rectangular and the packages assembled thereon form a substantially rectangular collective package and the opening in said shrink film is rectangular.
 3. A collective package as claimed in claim 1 and further comprising gripping means provided On at least one of the exposed, centrally located packages to assist in the removal thereof from the collective package.
 4. A collective package as claimed in claim 3 wherein said gripping means comprises a member extending around two opposed sides and the bottom of at least one of the centrally located packages, the upper ends of said member being accessible through said opening for withdrawing said package from the collective package.
 5. A method of making a collective package comprising assembling a pluraity of substantially identical packages on a support in compact configuration so that there is at least one central package surrounded by others of the substantially identical packages, surrounding said assembled pluraity of packages and support with a film of plastic material, shrinking said film to secure said packages together and removing that portion of the upper surface of the shrunk film to completely expose the at least one central package while retaining the shrunk film substantially over all of the peripheral packages of the compact assembly thereof. 